How Aussie ecommerce stores can compete with the retail giant Amazon

The powerhouse Amazon retail store is set to launch in Australia toward the end of 2018 and Aussie ecommerce retailers need to ready themselves for the competition storm ahead.

2018 may seem a while away but getting your ecommerce site in tip top shape and ready to compete can take time. Check out these helpful hints from the Anchor crew.

Speed kills

If you’ve ever heard of the tale of the tortoise and the hare, the moral is that “slow and steady wins the race”. This is definitely not the place for that phrase, because if your site loads as slowly as a 1995 dial up connection, your ecommerce store will not, I repeat, will not win the race.

Site speed can be impacted by a number of factors and getting the balance right between a site that loads at lightning speed and delivering engaging content to your audience. There are many ways to check the performance of your site including Anchor’s free hosting check up or pingdom.

Show me the money

As an ecommerce store, getting credit card details as fast as possible is probably at the top of your list, but it’s important to remember that it’s an actual person that needs to hand over the details.

Consider the customer’s experience whilst checking out. Making people log in to their account before checkout, can lead to abandoned carts as customers try to remember the vital details. Similarly, making a customer enter all their details before displaying shipping costs is more of an annoyance than a benefit.

Built for growth

Before you blast out a promo email to your entire database or spend up big on PPC, consider what happens when this 5 fold increase in traffic, all jumps onto your site at around the same time.

Will your site come screeching to a sudden halt with a 504 or 408 error message, or ride high on the wave of increased traffic? If you have fixed infrastructure such as a dedicated server, or are utilising a VPS, then consider the maximum concurrent users that your site can handle.

Consider this. Amazon.com.au will be built on the scalable cloud infrastructure of Amazon Web Services and will utilise all the microservices and data mining technology to offer customers a seamless, personalised shopping experience. How will your business compete?

Search ready

Being found online is important for any business, but for ecommerce sites, it’s essential. Gaining results from SEO practices can take time so beware of ‘quick fix guarantees’ from outsourced agencies.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices can have lasting effects. Good practices can ensure your site is found via organic search without huge advertising budgets, on the other hand ‘black hat’ practices can push your ecommerce store into search oblivion.

SEO takes discipline and focus to get right. Here are some of our favourite hints for SEO greatness from those who live and breathe SEO:

SEO best practices are continually evolving, but creating a site that is designed to give users a great experience and give them the content they expect to find.

Google My Business is a free service that EVERY business should take advantage of. It is a listing service where your business can provide details such as address, phone number, website, and trading hours. It’s easy to update and manage, you can add photos, a physical address (if applicable), and display shopper reviews.

Get your site ship shape

Overwhelmed by these starter tips? If you are ready to get your site into tip top shape–get in touch. We work with awesome partners like eWave who can help create a seamless online shopping experience.